No snow this late in the year makes it feel like the holidays
are still a way off, but the return of the Bradford Landmark
Society’s annual Holiday House Tour is a sure sign that – snow or
not – the holiday season is here.
The Holiday House tour will again offer a tour through some of
the area’s most beautiful and historical buildings, including both
businesses and homes, and will also include a couple new
details.
For the first time in Holiday House history, the Bradford Area
High School Jazz Ensemble, under the direction of Chad Young, will
perform from 1:30 to 3 p.m. at the Main Street Mercantile.
Providing musical entertainment from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Saturday,
Holiday House Tour veterans, the Walden Horns, will perform holiday
music at the Bank Building at Crook Farm on Seaward Avenue.
Homemade holiday taste treats will also be available at Crook
Farm, where another Holiday House Tour first will take place. This
year, the Farm House will be decorated in the 1800s style, and the
Bank Building will also be decorated for the occasion – both
featuring Christmas trees adorned with decorations made by the
first and second-grade students at George G. Blaisdell Elementary
School. The First Presbyterian Church Garden Tour Committee has
decorated the Bank Building, while Judy Yorks, director at Crook
Farm, and her committee decorated the Farm House.
In addition to the two buildings on Crook Farm, the Bradford
Landmark Society has slated five other stops for Holiday House
tourists.
The Flat Iron Building at 11 Boylston St., the former Rufus
Barrett Stone House or Pompelon Hall, which is celebrating its
100th birthday this year, is among those stops. The building, built
between 1903 and 1906, survives nearly in its original state,
according to the Landmark Society. Owned these days by Jim and
Sandy MacFarlane and their two children, the Flat Iron Building has
been restored to its colonial revival roots, and is now housing the
offices of MacTech Mineral Management.
The “Rouge Chapeau Mademoiselle” Society, in authentic wardrobe,
will be caroling for tourists who visit the Flat Iron Building.
Patrick and Wendy Hennebicque at 576 South Ave., have decided to
participate in this year’s Holiday House Tour, welcoming area
residents to peruse the nature and animal-oriented Christmas
decorations in what many residents still call “the Geibel
house.”
Wendy Hennebicque gave The Era a sneak peek inside her home
Tuesday.
Mini collections of nutcrackers, snowmen and angels adorn the
Christmas tree, shelves, staircases and end tables. Hennebicque
said many of her favorite pieces are those that were gifts from
close friends or family, like a blue bell that her father gave her
as a child of 4 or 5 years after a return trip from San Francisco,
Calif. On Dec. 19, the birth date of one of her two sons,
Hennebicque received two hand-knit Christmas ornaments from the
nurses at the hospital; those are among her favorites, too.
Some of her decorations are old, and some are new, she said, and
she adds to her collection every year. Red ribbon, greenery, silver
wire and white lights cover nearly every inch of the Hennebicques’
table tops, shelves and cabinets, interwoven between their
decorations, which include Patrick Hennebicque’s collection of
busts – many of which are connected to his French heritage, his
wife said.
She went on to say she hopes her home puts tourists in “the
Christmas mood,” and will be happy to see them all, hoping they
come out “whatever the weather.” She suggests tourists park across
the road near the Sunshine Palace and AAA office.
Also on the agenda for Holiday House tourists is the Mallory
Home at 28 School St., which serves as a residential group home for
seven women with disabilities. Purchased from the Mallory trust,
Evergreen Elm Inc. established the group home there in 1976. The
house was decorated by the residents, staff, volunteers, parents
and relatives.
Those taking this year’s Holiday House Tour can also stop at
1001 South Ave., the home of Mr. and Mrs. Fred Pysher, also known
as the John W. Bryner house. Built in 1939 by George Larson, the
home is decorated in an interesting and eccentric motif, including
a wood-burning fireplace with petrified wood, fossils, coral and
oil well core samples and musket balls. Part of the fireplace is
the stepping stone for the horse-drawn carriage from the original
E.E. Bryner homestead on West Warren Road, and the hitching post
from the homestead is at the driveway of the Pysher house. The
Pyshers have paid tribute to Bradford’s oil heritage with a “pump
room,” with oil-related paraphernalia on display, along with
drilling tools and a working pot-bellied stove.
The Main Street Mercantile at 96 Main St. will offer tourists a
chance to see first-hand the wide array of art, jewelry, crafts,
woodwork, sculptures, candles and potpourri, homemade foods, yarn
and quilting supplies, beverages and more under one roof.
Refreshments will be served as the mercantile, which was opened in
June of 2005 by 16 area entrepreneurs.
Holiday House tour-takers can also take advantage of special
offers from many area restaurants upon presentation of their tour
ticket this year. Not all area restaurants are participating in the
special dinner offer.
